A man killed in a great white shark attack off the coast of New Zealand was an award-winning short film director.

Police recovered the body of 46-year-old Adam Strange on Wednesday afternoon at Muriwai, a popular surfing beach near Auckland, on the county’s North Island.

The shark, possibly four metres (14ft) long attacked Mr Strange, then disappeared after police attempting to save him fired gunshots at the predator.

A statement on Mr Strange's Facebook page said: "The family are grieving the loss of a glorious father, husband and friend. We are in deep shock ... "

The television director won a Crystal Bear award for best short film at the 2009 Berlin Film Festival, according to his company's website.

Police in a helicopter directed inflatable boats to the scene

Mr Strange, who has worked across the world, has made television commercials for companies such as Pepsi, Toyota and Samsung. He has been a finalist in the Cannes International Advertising Awards and the London International Advertising Awards.

On his website he said: "When I get a spare 5 minutes, I like to … surf some big waves out on the West Coast, point my skis down a mountain ... haul my mountain bike up and down a few hills, drink some Pinot while scratching away at a film script … "

Witness Stef McCallum, 18, said she saw a police officer go out in a surf lifesaving boat and fire "about 20" shots into the water at the shark.

"Everybody was evacuated from the water. Word of mouth, 'shark', and everybody left the water," she said.

As many as 200 people were on the beach at the time of the attack

Another witness to the attack, Pio Mose, claimed he saw three sharks.

He told The New Zealand Herald he saw the swimmer struggle against one "huge" shark. He told the man to swim to the rocks, but it was too late.

"All of a sudden there was blood everywhere," Mr Mose said. "I was shaking, scared, panicked."

Another witness told television station 3 News NZ that he spotted the lone swimmer while he was fishing at the beach.

The distressed man signalled for help when he was attacked, before he was pulled underwater. At this point, the witness said, three or four other sharks appeared in the area.

Police Inspector Shawn Rutene said the swimmer was about 650ft (200m) offshore when the shark attacked.

It is not clear whether the shark was killed.

Inspector Matt Sillars said: "We're not sure at this stage whether or not the deceased died prior to the shark arriving on the scene, or whether the shark was a contributing factor towards the death."

Earlier this week, surfer Bourne Nobel Buiski had posted on Facebook that there had been a "massive" shark spotted near surfers on Monday at Piha, 14km south of Muriwai.

Fatal shark attacks are relatively rare in New Zealand with just over a dozen deaths since record-keeping began in the 1830s.